TOO MUCH MONEY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10407, 22 July 1912, Page 2

TOO MUCH MONEY.

London, Mey 23. As generally happens in this country, not too little, bnt tooi mnoh money has been subscribed by the public lor the relief of 6h ® ® ntt s r £ r f by the Titanic disaster. Iho Lord Mavor’s fond now amounts to over £260 000 which is a lot more than is SSd.Tta« -«'l B.MO.IPMOM toes pouring In, and it has just been onSonnced that the big BntplM thaU likely to remain after all the of the recent disaster aVB .* , ®V Helped will be placed in tl ’ e of the Pnblio Trustee, and will be available in future emergencies of the same kind. _ ~ . This will mean still another addition to the oolossial sum of money which Is lying ownerless . ia country. In the vaults of tteßtrt of England alone is ova* £1.000,000 whose owners are unknown, and which is doing nobpiy any good This represents unclaimed dividends on debtors’ estates, trustees in bankruptcy having been compelled, some yeaid ago, to pay the into bank such cams as had been in their hands for nix months. A wonderful stream of geld forthwith, began to trickle into the coffers of the old lady of Threadneed’s Street, and ultimately .amounted to the snm mentioned flbOV6» What the cash in the hands of ordinary trustees in the ooantry amounts to oan only be guessed at, but it must he a staggering figure Solicitors alone- hold an enormous amount for which they cannot find owners. Coroners, magistrates, and police court missionaries also are in possession of money to which nobody lays claim. A typical example is furnished by a recent pathetic case which was reported in the newspapers Donations for the relief of its heroine—-a woman - were sent from all parts of the ooantry to the magistrate before whom her case bad come, the total amount thus forwarded —much of it anonymously —being more than £BO. After £33 bad been paid to the woman, she died, leaving no known relatives, and the balance is still held by the magistrate. It Is the Dlmost invariable rale for big public relief funds—like tbs Titanic one—in ;thla country to be over-subscribed, and as a result huge anrplussesjjare still in the hands of trustees, who don’t know what to <Jo with them. For the relief of ghffeters through the disaster at Hartley colliery, in 1863, for instance, over £87,200 was subscribed, This was so much in excess of requirements that!£2o 000 was at cnca Vet aside for the benefit of those who should be bereaved by other accidents in coal mines Since then all claims on the funds have been met, bnt when the last report was made, there still §waa an unwanted balance of £34,000. Another fnnd much over-subscribed was that in connection with the disaster at the Oaks pit, near Barnsley, in 1866, f the surplus now in the hands of the trustees amounting to £33,000. There was, again, mote than enough money for sufferers by theLlaneroh colliery explosion, in 1890, and for the women and children of the, men kihed at Aberoorn. A few y*«ss ago the trustees.of the two funds had nearly £25,000 more than they wanted Sometimes . money remains in the bands of trustees long after all the people for whom it w.os subscribed are dead. of this kind was the Newburv exolcaion relief fund, the final balance of which is £7O, It seems surprising that such surpluses exist, and the reason of St is that, bs a rule, the amount sabticribed is capitalised and interest only paid for the relief of the widows and orphans. The subscribers generally have no idea of this, bnt it la so, nevertheless,— Press correspondent.